Miranda on the moon
Miranda Otto talks to Michelle Robinson about her role as 1950s poet Elizabeth Bishop.
Miranda Otto loves a challenge.
The flame-haired Australian actress is performing that juggling act that mothers with careers know so well.
Perhaps most famous for her role as the noblewoman Eowyn in Lord of the Rings, Otto limits herself to roles that cause the least disruption to her 9-year-old daughter, Darcey, and actor husband, Peter O’Brien.
The 46 year old made the exception for a biopic on American poet Elizabeth Bishop, Reaching for the Moon.
Set in 1950s and 60s Brazil, the drama details struggling alcoholic and bashful writer Bishop and her love affair with feisty architect Lota de Macedo Soares.
Otto was thrilled to land the role.
‘‘I like period work because of the restrictions that there were for women, I like having something to play against. I find the modern world very, very free. I find that harder.’’
Knowing little of the Pulitzer Prize winning Bishop, Otto took time to study her poems and began to embody the character.
‘‘I just always love characters that take time,’’ Otto says. ‘‘I didn’t think it would be right to change too much of her character to make her into someone that would be easy to get to know.
‘‘I guess I really like characters that have strong obstacles to work against. I like repressed characters. I enjoy the sort of bottling of that kind of energy.’’
Directed by Brazilian Bruno Baretto, the film was 17 years in the making. Baretto’s mother bought the rights to the book in the hope that famed local actress Gloria Pires would star in it.
A window of opportunity arrived in Pires’ schedule, allowing her to play Bishop’s charismatic lesbian lover. ‘‘Gloria totally embodied her character,’’ Otto says.
Otto was impressed with how comfortable Pires was with English and how hard she worked to get there. ‘‘She’s the Julia Roberts of Brazil.
‘‘Everyone loves her. She’s so warm and dynamic.’’
The film is not without its erotic scenes between the pair. But they weren’t the most challenging for Otto. ‘‘It was the drunken dance.
‘‘I enjoyed the music but I found that really hard on the day. How do you make a drunk person interesting?’’
Otto battled to balance being true to Bishop’s character, which she described as ‘‘uptight’’ in a recent Sydney Morning Herald interview, and the director’s desire for her to be likeable.
On screen, Otto’s Bishop appears somewhat aloof, at times selfish and often struggling to grasp the impact of her actions on others.
But Otto defends these perceived traits. ‘‘She’s a very discreet person.
‘‘She’s the product of an East Coast upbringing, that get-on- with-it protective layer,’’ Otto says. ‘‘I think she was a survivor, she went through a heck of a lot.’’
Bishop lost her father when she was 8 months old and her mother was institutionalised for mental illness when Bishop was 5.
‘‘She was more used to losing people than others were. Whereas Lota’s so used to achieving anything she wants, so any sort of loss is discombobulating,’’ Otto says.
‘‘‘I just found it really interesting working on someone like that, she was fiercely driven.’’Otto has spent the last 18 months based in Los Angeles with her family, saying it’s easier than trying to balance her daughter’s schooling in Australia with travelling for work.
Another film project, The Homesman, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep, was released at the Cannes Film Festival and will make its way Down Under later this year.
Otto hasn’t been back to New Zealand since filming Lord of the Rings. She missed out on an opportunity to visit for a cousin’s wedding recently due to a clash with her work schedule.
‘‘I loved Wellington, where I was based for five or six months filming. The South Island’s beautiful but I love windy Wellington.’’ Reaching for the Moon premieres at the NZ Film Festival on July 25.